Axzon Inc. has expanded its portfolio of Smart Passive Sensing products by pairing their Xerxes-I sensor with Maxim’s DARWIN family of low-power MCUs to deliver the first-of-its-kind ultra-low power IoT sensor with a secure, wireless UHF interface.

AUSTIN, Texas. – November 2, 2018 – Axzon, Inc continues to blaze the trail in the field of smart passive sensors with its Xerxes sensor which provides a configurable means to pair low-power transducers with the Xerxes’ ultra-low power signal acquisition and conditioning analog front-end. To further the capability of Xerxes powered sensors, Axzon has partnered with Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. to pair Xerxes with Maxim’s DARWIN MCU (MAX32660) to enable the lowest power IoT sensor with a secure, wireless UHF interface.

Xerxes enables a configurable, multi-modal sensor platform allowing as many as 4 different sensing functions on a single chip. Depending on the application, two of these sensing functions are configurable, allowing external transducers like strain gauges, pH electrodes or relative humidity transducers to be paired with Xerxes. Like its predecessor Magnus, the Xerxes family of sensors can operate in passive (battery-free) mode, harvesting RF energy wirelessly from a UHF RFID reader. However, pairing with an MCU does require the resulting sensor to be battery powered. Thanks to the ultra-low power consumption of the Xerxes sensor and Maxim’s DARWIN MCU, the resulting sensor can run off a coin cell battery for years, depending on the application. Maxim’s DARWIN MCU extends the capabilities of sensing by adding features like data logging, trend analysis of the sensed data and even complicated application-specific algorithms. The combined product will serve multiple sensing applications using a single solution. One example could be to measure the “freshness” of perishable produce in cold-chain applications. Another application could be for generating a secure compliance report for temperature sensitive pharmaceuticals in transit. The low power and wireless operation of the solution are attractive for a multitude of applications ranging from Industrial IoT to cold-chain logistics to asset sensing and/or tracking.

“The pairing of Xerxes with Maxim’s ultra-low-power DARWIN microcontrollers is a unique solution: a low-power sensor system that can unlock the invisible intelligence in the things all around us. We’re excited to see how our customers will take advantage of this ground-breaking combination of low-power sensor, RF and processing technologies,” said Don Loomis, vice president of the Microcontroller, Security & Software Business Unit at Maxim Integrated.

First prototypes of the evaluation board, code named ‘Project Neuron’, will be showcased at the Electronica trade show to be held in Munich, Germany from November 13-16, 2018.

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About Axzon

Based in Austin, Texas, Axzon (formerly RFMicron, Inc) produces end-to-end wireless sensing solutions that bring the Internet of Things (IoT) to industry and businesses in need of real-time business insights into productivity, performance, and environmental threats along their supply chain. Since its founding in 2006, Axzon has led the expansion of sensing capabilities to meet the unique, large-scale demands of businesses whose success depends on knowing more about their operating conditions, including automotive manufacturing, healthcare, predictive maintenance, switchgear, cold-chain and data centers. Axzon’s solutions include wireless Smart Passive Sensors™, SMART Edge™ systems, and other patented and patent-pending industrial IoT solutions.

Axzon, Axzon, Inc., and the Axzon logo, as well as the product and service names mentioned herein, are the registered trademarks of Axzon, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Although websites may be referenced in this news release, information on those websites is not to be incorporated herein.

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